Does anyone have any information or know of any sources, for the coal mine at New Cumnock early 1800's? The 1792 statistical account of the area says that the coal is not worked for lack of a navigable river. At about this time the Earl of Menteith bought an estate there and developed a railway to transport the coal (horse drawn wagons). The mine seems to have been at its peak in the early 1800's. By the 1841 census the census taker comments on the decline in the number of people employed there. I am particularly interested in knowing if the Earl brought in his own workers to work the mine. My ancestors David Menteith was a coal miner in New Cumnock. The name doesn't seem to appear in the parish records before 1890. I'm not expecting to find that we are of noble blood :) rather that some of the men brought in might have acquired the name as "men of Menteith" Catherine Fitchett Christchurch, NZ [email protected]